A new Region, a new journey OC
by MattArreo
Summary: Roy and Mark set out from their little town in the Juddan hills in an attempt to make an name for themselves and win the Pokemon League! Follow them on their fantastic adventure, as they meet new people, catch different Pokemon and train against others all along the way.
1. Chapter 1

"Come on Roy! I already signed us up!" said Mark. "And if you win it's a cash prize and a visit entry pass into the Hall of Fame!"

"When in the world will I ever get to the Indigo Plateau and be able to visit the Hall of Fame?" I said, purposely responding with a question of my own.

"You will be there after we win all our gym battles!" Mark said.

I scoffed. "Well in that case I'll already be poised to be added to the Hall of Fame myself, so I don't need it either way" I answered sarcastically.

The truth is though that I was curious. In the small town in which I lived there had not been a serious Pokémon trainer in years. Not since my uncle.

In my class Pidgy and I were the best, except for maybe Mark. That didn't matter though, since a little backwards town in the Juddan hills was not a real measurement. There were really good trainers out there and in no way did I measure up.

But I was dying to go on a journey. To improve my skills and make a profession out of my passion. Mark was the same way. He made me a bet. And that was the start of our conversation today.

There was a tournament in town. Mark signed us up. The bet we made was this: if we did well in the tournament we would leave together on a journey. His parents agreed. They had already reconciled to the fact that Mark would one-day leave on a journey. My parents were harder to convince, but in the end it was Mark's parents, who didn't want him traveling alone, that managed to convince mine to agree to this bet. They just wanted to make sure I was serious.

I was.

Lucky for me the tournament was one on one battles. All I had was Pidgy. Mark theoretically could have taken part in a two on two, but his Magikarp was as good as worthless. He won it at a carnival which passed through town a few years ago, but the thing was useless and so Mark just left it in its tank at home. His Meowth was pretty tough though, or at least compared to the other Pokémon found in our town. The strongest Pokémon I knew in our area was Old Man Thomas's Herdier. The few others who I knew that owned Pokemon pretty much had Rattatas, Sentrets, Starlys or the like. Even a first evolution of one of them was rare. People here just weren't into the battling thing.

And it showed.

A few dozen people had signed up for the tournament from Farnan, my hometown, and the surrounding villages. I lived in a pretty secluded area; a town of a few thousand people and a few smaller communities around. The nearest city was a long way away and I had only visited it a handful of times.

The tournament was to take place in the local sports stadium. The first two rounds took place outside, meant to weed out the poor trainers so that the spectators in the stands would only witness the better battles.

I blew through the first round like it was nothing, as did Mark. The final sixteen were still on a very low level. So low that some of the Pokémon only knew a single move. Many of the trainers hadn't even tried to avoid attacks. Just land their own. It was embarrassing,

The reason the league sponsored these tournaments was in order to involve the periphery and try and find more skill in the small towns outside the cities. If any of the decision makers had watched the first round they would have shut down the whole operation as a waste of money.

The second round was barely any better. Pidgy made quick work of the Rattata we were up against. Funnily enough Mark didn't have such an easy time against the Purrloin he was facing. It was quite the entertaining cat fight. In the end Meowth pulled out the victory. He was in better shape than Purrloin and therefore she tired faster.

In the final eight there were a few more interesting pokemon.

Someone had a Sandshrew they caught in the desert a few kilometers east of town. Another chubby brown haired girl had a Chikorita. She ended up being my third opponent.

We were now battling in the large stadium. There were about a hundred spectators. My opponent and I were the first to battle in the third round. A rectangle the size of a tennis court had been chalked off in the center of the field and we each stood at one end.

I had not seen her battle before, but my friend Andy, who had skipped school today to come watch, had told me to watch out for the long range razor leaf attack. I thanked him for the intel, though having the type advantage I was not worried.

The crowd hushed as the ref introduced us and called out the rules. Roy Gillan vs. Patty Nicks. First to knockout the other's Pokémon is the winner.

"Battle Begin!"

"Pidgy let's go!" I called, letting my red and white pokeball sail through the air. With a pop and a flash of red light Pidgy appeared in the air. The, now empty, ball bounced back into my hand.

"Chickorita! I choose you!" yelled a nasally voice from across the field.

The little green grass Pokémon hopped out onto the field, brandishing the leaf on its head.

"Quick Chickorita use tackle attack!" came the command.

"Get out of range" I called to Pidgy.

Pidgy flapped its wings, gaining altitude and avoided the grass Pokémon's attack.

"Now, wing attack!" I called.

Pidgy entered a nose dive, gaining speed. At the last moment it snapped its wings open and slammed them into Chickorita.

Chickorita sailed back skidding on the grass, taking serious super effective damage.

I was nervously aware of the announcer saying something along the same lines too.

"Up Chickorita!" commanded Patty. Chickorita responded, getting shakily to its feet. "Quick, use razor leaf!"

That was exactly what I had been waiting for. As Chickorita spun the leaf on her head, shooting out a small storm of sharp leaves, I ordered Pidgy to give a gust.

My Pidgy's gust cut right through the cloud of leaves and knocked them astray, confusing Chickorita. Pidgy knew already what to do and the second I commanded it, it flew into a quick attack, coming through the now harmless leaves to smack into Chickorita.

"Chickorita is unable to battle! Pidgy wins, Roy is the victor!"

And just like that I was final four.

Mark also won his battle, dropping an Oddish like it was nothing. The guy- Charlie, it turns out, with the Sandshrew, also won his match. The final member of the top four was another kid named Steve, who's Raticate overpowered his opponent's Rattata. I knew Steve from school. He was a year above me and he was somewhat of a bully. People usually liked him at first because he was good looking and had an easy charm about him, but anyone that got to know him a little better found a spoilt obnoxious bully lurking just beneath the surface.

Evening was just setting in so the organizers called it a day and said the semifinals would begin at 11 A.M sharp the next morning. Personally I think they did that in order to sell more tickets the next day, since the stadium had state of the art lighting and we could've kept fighting that night.

Mark and I went home together. We lived on the same block and his parents invited me for dinner. After we finished eating Mark and I stayed up really late talking strategy for the next day.

We were chilling on the dark green carpet on his bedroom floor when we realized that between the two of us we knew both other trainer's entire move-set.

I had witnessed Sandshrew use sand attack and scratch in his second round battle, while we both saw him use defense curl and poison sting in the third round. Mark had watched Steve's second battle and so he knew that Raticate could use Hyper fang, quick attack, Focus energy and tackle.

"That Hyper fang is dangerous. It took out that last Rattata one shot. Also, Raticate is fast, real fast."

"So what to do you suggest?" I asked Mark. He thought for a moment. Mark was great at strategy. I had my own Idea but I was curious what he would say.

"For you it's easy. Range. Gain height and stay there. For me? Luck."

That caught me off guard and I scoffed. "Luck? That isn't a strategy! We both know you can do better than that!"

"Yeah, I know, was just teasing you buddy" he said, grinning mischievously. "What I'll have to bank on is surprise. If I can land a direct hit before he can, I trust Meowth will be able to pull off the victory. We have in the past against tougher opponents."

"What about Sandshrew, given him any thought?" asked Mark, leaning back on his elbows.

"Of course I have" I said, shifting position as my leg had begun falling asleep. "in this case the same strategy can work for both of us. It's all about the speed, Sandshrew has great defense, especially once Charlie starts putting defense curl into effect. What we have to do is hit him long before that. Surprise and speed should do the trick. Oh, and not getting poisoned, that would be a rookie mistake."

Mark agreed with me on all of that, though he pointed out that we were rookies. I just gave him a look that said "stop being a jerk".

"What if we end up against each other now?" I wondered.

"Then I will beat you like I usually do" said Mark airily, as if stating the obvious.

"Yeah right, you hardly ever beat me!" I replied, maybe a little untruthfully.

"Well then, time will tell wont it?" replied Mark though I could tell he was trying a little too hard to seem confident. We were pretty evenly matched. "Though it doesn't matter, since it looks like any ways we will be going on a journey together. We've done well enough."

"I guess that's true…" the reality of it started sinking in, and excitement started bubbling up in my belly. "But let's focus on the tournament now. We will have plenty of time after to plan our journey."

"Agreed" said Mark.

It was late so I let myself out and headed home to the other side of the block. As I began walking up the front steps to my house I heard something slither from behind some of the plants in our front Yard.

It was dark and I couldn't really tell what it was, so I took a few steps closer and only realized my mistake too late. It was the bright red color that gave it away. That and the sharp stinger that struck my foot. I felt the poison spread like ice through my leg and I collapsed. Lucky for me my instincts were good enough that as I fell, I released Pidgy from his ball, so that when the damn Venipede came in for a second go at me he was blocked by may brave bird Pokémon.

As I lay on the floor, my frozen leg on fire, I managed to keep my head enough to order the right attack. "Pidgy, use gust!" I called, very aware of Venipedes ability, poison point- which had a high chance of poisoning Pidgy upon contact.

Venipede was thrown back by the gust and smashed into the wall of my house. Inside, a light flickered on. I felt woozy, and I knew I had to stop it quickly. The only sure way to do that was to catch the thing. "Wing attack!" I called to Pidgy, hoping beyond hope that it would not be effected by poison point. Pidgy hit and I was just vaguely aware of Venipede going cross eyed as I threw a pokeball. The last thing I remember Is someone opening the door to my house and shouting my name as I slipped away, wondering if Pidgy was alright.

 **Authors note:**

 **Please review! I appreciate your feedback. It will help me polish up the story. Thanks**


	2. Chapter 2

When I came to I was lying in a hospital bed. I sat up and found that I was feeling fine, even refreshed. I mentally went over what I remembered from the night before, panicking a little when I realized I didn't have my Pokeball with me.

Just then the nurse walked in with my dad.

"Oh he is up" she said to my dad. "How do you feel?"

"Im fine" I replied quickly. "How is Pidgy? Where is he?" I asked, afraid a trace of the fear I felt could be detected in my voice.

"Pidgy will be fine Roy. He is at the Pokémon center with your mother."

"Why is he there?" I asked knowing the answer. Suddenly I felt sick to my stomach.

"It seems that last wing attack triggered Venipede's poison point, poisoning your Pidgy" dad responded.

I burst into tears." It's my fault!" I cried, "I knew of Venipede's special ability and I still had Pidgy use a physical attack. I am the worst trainer ever, Pidgy will hate me!"

"On the contrary" said a deep voice from the doorway. "I think you did exactly what a trainer should do."

That shut me up. It was my uncle. My mother's younger brother who had left our town years before I was even born, making his way in the Pokémon trainer world. He now headed his very own Pokémon gym. As a young kid uncle Dale was the one who first introduced me to the concept of being a Pokémon trainer, he was the person I most looked up to and he was also the perfect person to calm me down in my current state.

"What do you mean, uncle Dale, I got Pidgy hurt, he was poisoned because of me!"

"That may be true, but if I remember correctly you and Pidgy have a true bond of friendship and trust. The same way Pidgy trusted you enough to follow your commands, so too you must trust yourself and your instincts to make the right call. Answer me this: if Pidgy had not used wing attack what might have happened?"

I knew he was right. "Venipede may have gotten another crack at me…."

Uncle Dale nodded. "So you see? Your instincts were good, you made the best of a bad situation. Pidgy will understand. Let go of your guilt, and go win that tournament!"

It hit me like a brick. The tournament! I looked at the clock by my bed. A quarter passed ten. Shoot.

" Pidgy isn't well enough to battle… what am I going to do? I'm going to have to forfeit." That was a really disappointing thought.

"Or you could just switch Pokémon." Suggested Dale.

"But I don't have another…" and it dawned on me just as dad produced a pokeball from his pocket and handed it to me.

" You managed to catch it!" dad said proudly, "now go use it to win!"

I was so overwhelmed by emotion I had to stop myself from relapsing into a whole new fit of tears.

Dad drove me and uncle Dale to the stadium.

On the way I asked my uncle what brought him back to town. He explained that he took a leave of absence from his gym in order to do some research and training. He planned on staying here for a month and then traveling to Professor Rosewood's lab to continue his work there.

"You know Professor Rosewood?" I asked astounded. Professor Rosewood was one of the top Pokémon experts living in our region. Her research on Pokémon habitats was known worldwide, adding her name to the list of experts like professors Oak, Elm, Birch and Sycamore.

"Sure! Rosie and I go way back."

"Wow." I said. Thoroughly miffed.

We made it there with ten minutes to spare. I used the time to officially acquaint myself with Venipede. I apologized to him for scaring him the night before. He seemed to warm to me. I was just hoping that he was strong enough to defeat whoever I came up against, Charlie, Steve or Mark. At least I knew I had surprise on my side.

Eleven sharp the loudspeakers blared asking the contestants to go down to the field and all spectators to take their seats. There were far more of them today. Mine and Mark's entire class came to watch, inspired by Andy's tale of our battles yesterday. The large crowd made me a little nervous. Unlike Mark who always seemed comfortable with all the attention, I wasn't used to it at all.

I stood near Mark as the announcer welcomed everyone and began building the tension for the decision of the upcoming match.

Mark leaned over and whispered "I heard you spent the night in the hospital! What happened? Can I not even let you walk home without supervision?"

"I'll fill you in later" I said just as my name popped up in big on the screen. A moment later Steve's face appeared opposite mine.

"Wish me luck" I said as I stepped away from Mark towards my side of the field.

"You can do better than luck" he called after me. "Remember height!"

If only, I thought to myself, listening with a little indignant surprise as the announcer mentioned that Steve is the favorite to win the whole thing.

"Raticate, in!"

"Venipede! Let's do this!"

Just as expected I heard the collective gasp of surprise from the crowd. It was rare enough in this area to own one Pokémon, let alone two, and at my age? Surprise!

I had to capitalize on the shock. "Quick, defense curl!" I commanded. Venipede responded as fast as could be expected from a first time battle with a trainer.

"Raticate, focus energy!"

Not good. Steve planned on winning this one shot. I didn't know Venipede well enough to trust it to its limits. I figured I had one option and that was to trust the defense.

"Defense curl!" I called again, hoping that I had sufficiently buffed Venipede's defenses for the oncoming attack.

"Now Raticate, finish it with hyper fang!"

"dodge it!" I yelled, though without much conviction, Raticate was much too fast for that to work.

A cloud of dust exploded from the ground as Raticate made its move, leaving us all in tense wonder at the outcome.

Please Venipede, I silently prayed.

The dust cleared.

Indeed, Venipede had not managed to avoid the sharp crushing teeth of the rat Pokémon, but he did manage to avoid a critical hit. And he was still standing.

And it turns out this is also where the luck I had scoffed at comes into play, since Raticate was reeling back and forth on his legs, feeling the full brunt of Venipede's poison point ability.

"Venipede, use poison sting!" I called. The red bug pokemon shot tens of small white stingers at the orange rat pokemon hitting him square in the chest and knocking him back.

"No!" cried Steve, still in shock that his hyper fang hadn't ended it. Meanwhile Raticate was taking heavy damage from being poisoned.

Time to win. "Venipede, pursuit!"

And just like that it was over.

Steve was in shock. "I… I lost?" I heard him say to himself as I walked over to shake his hand. "How could I have lost?"

"Hey Steve, thanks for a great battle" I said, extending my hand. He looked at me for a second not comprehending and then took my hand. The crowd cheered. I felt great for a second, blushing, until I realized he was squeezing my hand really hard.

"This is not the last time Gillan. You got lucky here, but next time we meet I will rock your world." More venom dripped from his voice than had been injected into my leg last night.

I was never one to back down from a challenge. "In that case, I'll be waiting to repeat todays thrashing whenever you want."

With a look of absolute loathing Steve left the stadium, not waiting around to see who won.

The next match between Mark and Charlie lasted a lot longer than mine had. Even with Marks quick surprise strategy Charlie still managed to get behind his Sandshrews defense and it took Meowth a while to wear it down. In the end though, Mark pulled out the victory like I knew he would, and we were on to a final between two best friends.

"The final match between Mark Hunter and Roy Gillan will be a One on One in accordance with the official tournament rules. The first to knock out his opponent is the winner and will receive the cash prize and two entry tickets to the Hall of Fame visitors' gallery."

Mark and I were at opposite ends of the field. Before the match I had filled him in on what had occurred last night, since he was more surprised than everyone else that I had another Pokémon.

One of the reasons we were best friends is due to the fact that the first question he had after I finished telling him was about Pidgy. He cared just as much as I did about my injured Pokémon. I assured him that Pidgy was just fine and that nurse Joy said I should come pick him up this evening.

But now it was time to set friendship aside in order to win the competition. I was pumped, even though I was very conscious of the many people watching me.

"Trainers ready?" asked the referee. "Battle Begin!"

And just like that, thought of everything else seemed to melt away.

"Meowth let's go!"

"Venipede, I choose you!"

And it was on like never before.

"Quick Meowth, use growl!"

The tan cat Pokémon began to growl menacingly, lowering Venipede's attack power. At once I knew Mark's strategy. His Meowth was a normal type and only knew physical moves. So before going on the attack when he would have to risk poison-point in order to win, Mark was going to try to weaken my Pokémon. I was sure the next attack he would use is tail whip.

My counter strategy was to go on the offensive right away.

"Poison sting Venipede!" I called. My bug Pokémon responded well with a direct hit on Meowth. The cat shouldered the damage without much show.

"Atta boy Meowth!" Called Mark. "Now, use tail-whip!"

There it was, and I was ready for that defense lowering maneuver, "defense-curl!" I called, raising my Pokémon's defense back to what it was originally.

"Once again, poison sting!" Venipede shot out the poisoned stingers once more, scoring a hit on Meowth. The problem was this: Venipede's attack power just wasn't very high, and so each hit was doing pretty minimal damage. My best hope was for Meowth to get poisoned, and to that end I had to just keep hitting him and hope to get lucky.

Mark seemed to realize that too. "Alright Meaowth! Time to get serious, use Bite!"

"Defense curl Venipede!" I called, but too slow. My red bug got caught by a mouthful of Meowth's razor sharp teeth.

"Vene! Venipede!" screamed Venipede, as Meowth tossed it to the side.

My hope that Meowth would come away from the encounter poisoned didn't materialize. I could see Mark letting out a small sigh of relief from the other side of the field.

"Poison sting, once more!" I called to Venipede. Only this time Meowth managed to dodge it, he then followed Mark's command to the letter and hit my Pokémon with a scratch attack.

I could see Venipede was hurting, and annoyingly enough once again Meowth came away without being poisoned. My options were running out.

"Venipede, tackle attack!" I called. My palms were sweaty, and I could feel my heart thumping quickly in my chest. Hundreds of eyes were on me. I needed a miracle.

Venipede jumped, colliding with Meowth who was coming in for another bite attack. Both moves connected, Venipede took more damage, but finally I saw that Meowth was poisoned.

"Alright Venipede! Use Pursuit!" I called.

From across the field I heard Mark yell "lets finish this Meowth! Use scratch!"

Once again our Pokémon closed on each other. Both moves hit their mark and both Pokémon were blown back from each other. Meowth, like all cats, landed on Its feet, though quite shakily, showing the effects of the poison.

Venipede, on the other hand, landed on its back, knocked out.

"And the winner is Meowth. The victor is Mark Hunter!" called the referee. I screwed my eyes shut, willing the tears to go away. The crowd was cheering, though A few groans were also audible, making me feel a little better.

I recalled Venipede to its Pokeball. "You did great Venipede, I'm proud of you. Take a nice long rest" I whispered chokedly to the Pokeball before placing back in the ball holster on my belt.

Mark was very gracious about his victory. Since both of us were very competitive, we learned early on in our friendship to "leave it on the field" meaning whatever was said or done during a game didn't affect our friendship after.

After that there was a ceremony, Mark was given his first place prize and I, it turns out, was awarded the second place prize: two blue greatballs. It was a nice condolence gift.

After the match some of my class friends stuck around. They were asking questions and just generally giving their opinion of my performance in battle, when Alicia walked up to me.

Alicia was a girl in the class above me. She was known as one of the smarter kids in school and was editor of the school paper. Alicia wanted to be a reporter when she graduated.

In the meantime, she asked for an interview, and before I had a chance to answer she pulled me over to the side.

"But why don't you interview Mark?" I asked.

"The local newspaper has already sent someone to talk to him. I figured I would talk to you, to get a different perspective, you know?" she gave me a smile and I acquiesced.

Alicia preceded to ask me some questions, some were basic and technical, others were a little too probing. She wouldn't hear no for an answer though so I ended up admitting that I was really quite nervous, but that I wasn't jealous at all of Mark, I just felt I need to work harder to beat him next time.

She picked up on that like a Sharpedo smelling blood. "Next time?" she asked.

"Yeah" I replied, launching into an explanation of Mark and my plan to leave together on a journey. She was intrigued and grilled me for more details on that before finally moving on to the subject of my sudden Pokémon switch. She wanted to know if it was an accident or some stroke of brilliance. I was loath to get into detail about the night before, so I just shrugged and kind of made myself sound nonchalant about it. Alicia didn't seem to buy it, but then my dad came to find me and she was forced to let me go.

"That was not a very pleasant experience" I confided in my dad as we drove to the Pokémon center. Dad nodded his understanding. "Be careful when it come to the media. That could be a double edged sword." I thought back over what I had told Alicia, wondering what the final write-up would be like, until we made it to the Pokémon Center.

Pidgy was thrilled to see me, and he didn't seem too upset about the fact that we lost. In addition, nurse Joy took a look at Venipede and proclaimed that with a little rest he will be back to speed.

Pidgy also officially met Venipede. They communicated for a few minutes and it seemed they would get along fine, with no hard feelings about last night's encounter.

That made me happy. I intuitively felt that it was very important for the members of my team to get along with one another. I felt that in a certain way this was a big step towards becoming a real Pokemon master.

 **Authors note:**

 **please read and review and I will try to get the next chapter up within the next few days.**


	3. Chapter 3

After losing the match to Mark and picking up my now healthy Pidgy, my parents took me out to my favorite restaurant for dinner. They seemed proud of me for how far I got in the tournament. Eventually the talked turned to our deal.

"A deal is a deal, and you definitely held up your side of it." Said my mother agreeably.

"So this is what we propose," continued my dad. "The school year is done it a month. Mom and I would like you to complete this year at least. Any way you and Mark need time to prepare and research and plan your Journey. We spoke about it with the Hunter's, and they are in full agreement. We will get you all the books and maps you need. After the end of the year you guys are free to go with our blessing."

I thought on this for a minute. Even though I was excited to get going already, there was a lot of sense in what my parents were saying. I hadn't the first clue of where I would go if I left now. How would I pay for what I needed etc. So I needed time to plan anyway. If it made my Parents happy for me to finish the last month of the school year while I was here, that was fine with me.

Before I could voice my opinion my mother chimed in again. "I also invited an old family friend over for a few days. She can only make it at the end of the month. Uncle Dale will also be staying with us until then. We both agreed that you will really want to meet her. You should invite Mark over too when she gets here."

"Who?" I asked curiously.

"You will just have to wait and see" replied Mom.

A week later the interview with me came out in the school weekend addition of the paper. Most of it was fine, just a technical blow by blow of the matches I was part of for those who didn't attend. The last half of the article was dedicated to my personal life. Only child, live on the edge of town, A- student, have always loved Pokémon. Received my Pidgy as a gift when I was ten.

Alicia then did exactly what I hoped she wouldn't do and got into the fact that I switched Pokémon to one no one had ever seen me use before. She also called my bluff. She had done some serious investigative duty and had gone to the hospital and somehow found out the whole story of how I caught Venipede, calling me an Irresponsible trainer for allowing my Pidgy to get injured like that, especially the night before the finals. As if I didn't care about the effort my Pokémon had put in to get us all the way to the semi's.

The article was very upsetting because it rang truthful in my ears. The only thing that prevented me from really getting upset was what my uncle Dale had said to me in the hospital, and the fact that Pidgy didn't seem upset at all by our loss. It seemed that he just had a good time in the battles and hoped that we would do better next time.

My main take away from the whole episode was what my dad had said, in the future I would be very weary of the media.

Mark also had an article, but in the local newspaper. It was a great article. It also described the match play by play, but incorporating the crowd's reactions on every move. It made me realize that I had been so nervous that as soon as the match began I just tuned out the crowd, unable to pay attention both to them and to the match.

Otherwise the article delved into the fact that Mark and I were planning on leaving on a Journey. That was pretty rare for people from our town and it caused a stir. Also the fact that the winner and runner up were best friends seemed to endear us to the populace. Just walking to the grocery store on Friday to pick up milk for my mother, three people who I recognized by face but not name, wished me luck in my travels.

So as the month rolled towards its end and the visit from my mother's mysterious guest, Mark and I were in high spirits. We were splitting out days into four; we went to school in the morning as we had promised out folks. When we got back we would train together either at his house or at mine; me with Pidgy and Venipede, and Mark with Meowth (and occasionally a failed attempt with Magikarp).

After that we would pour over maps and books to try and prepare for our trip.

When we got tired of that we would split, each going home, where we would get in some more individual training before bed. It was an exhausting routine.

Over the second weekend after tournament, Mark and I made our first foray into the wild. We took three days and went up into the unpopulated hills just south of our community. It was an area that hadn't seen many humans in my life time.

We made camp the first night in a small clearing in a we found in the pinewood half way down a small hill. The night was quiet and we were up late talking, sharing fantasies about our upcoming trip. We were set to leave Sunday, two weeks from tomorrow. Eventually Mark fell asleep, and so I rolled over and waited for the warm arms of slumber to embrace me as well.

When I woke in the morning Mark was gone. He had used some of the charcoal from the night's fire to leave me a message 'gone looking for Pokémon. Be back by noon'. I thought that was a great Idea, and, checking my belt for my Pokeballs, headed out as well.

I hadn't gone ten meters when I found a little green snake Pokémon.

"Snivy!" it introduced itself happily.

"Is that what you are?" I asked it rhetorically. "Well, I think I'll catch you!"

"Pidgy! Let's go!" I called. Out of the ball I threw popped my tan little bird "wing attack!"

The Snivy dodged it quicker than I thought possible.

"Again!" I called, hoping that it had dodged through luck.

This time, as Pidgy closed on Snivy, he anticipated the green snake Pokémon to dodge in the same direction as before, and was ready to adjust its wing attack accordingly.

But once again, Snivy managed to evade the incoming bird, dodging in the same direction as before, but still too quick for Pidgy's correction.

"Wow, okay, quick attack" I commanded Pidgy. This time it connected and the little green Pokémon was tossed back. It didn't take it long to recover though, and it hopped right back in, hitting Pidgy with a tackle. Pidgy was knocked to the ground. Snivy then began to hit it with a crack of vine whip.

Pidgy was determined though, so I had it use its own tackle attack once more. He launched himself off the ground and into Snivy. Pidgy then managed to get airborne, and I ordered a gust.

Snivy was thrown back into a tree trunk with which it collided with a loud **_whack_**! I wasted no time throwing my Pokeball to snatch it up.

The red and white ball shook once, twice, three times before the light went off and it was still.

"Welcome to the team, little guy" I said, pocketing the ball. I was excited to show Mark.

Pidgy had done a great job so I let him hang around outside for the rest of the morning. I must have gotten pretty lucky with Snivy, since except for glimpsing a few green shadows that disappeared when I looked at them, the only other Pokémon I saw was a scurrying Rattata, and I was not interested in owning one of those. At a certain point I made it down to a small creek. I took a swallow of water from my canteen and decided to head back towards the campsite.

When I got back to camp Mark was already there, humming to himself quietly as he prepared lunch.

"So, how was your morning?" He asked.

"It was great. I caught something" I answered, purposely not giving away that it was a Snivy.

"Oh yeah? Awesome! I looked for hours… I was sure that there was nothing around. Finally, I ran into a Caterpie! Meowth had an easy time of it."

"Congratulations! It seems that this trip out here was worthwhile."

"Seems so. How about it though? A battle until lunch is ready? He had just put up a pot to cook on the fire. "Your new mystery Pokémon against mine?"

Mark seemed a little too eager. There was something mischievous hiding behind his pale brown eyes. But this was a challenge we were talking about, and I wanted to make it a habit to never back down from a challenge.

"Alright, let's go one on one." I agreed.

"Yeah buddy!" said Mark, rushing to create a space between us.

"On three" Mark said and I nodded. "One… Two… Three!" He tossed out his pokeball just as I tossed out mine.

I knew what to expect out of my pokeball, but what came out of Mark's totally surprised me. Instead of the small green Caterpie I was looking for, a larger orange dinosaur stood.

"A Charmander?" I asked, taken aback. Charmander was looking cautiously at Snivy, who just stared back at him, as if daring him to get close. "You said you caught a Caterpie!"

"I did! first I caught Caterpie, and then on the way back here, not twenty minutes ago, we ran into this little guy." He then peered over at my Pokemon. "What is that?" he asked.

"I'm not sure, but I believe he is called Snivy. Caught him first thing this morning, "I said proudly. I then proceeded to size up Charmander again. "Seems like I am at a type disadvantage," I concluded dejectedly. As far as I knew that spelled certain defeat. His moves would deal much higher damage while mine would barely do any. But I had agreed to the challenge, so I figured I had to at least give it a shot.

"Let's go Snivy, use tackle!" I said. As with every battle of mine, as soon as it began my mind went into hyper mode, considering and discarding strategies and scenarios at a crazy pace. In this case I had to rely on the little I knew of Snivy, especially because of the type disadvantage. That meant utilizing the speed I had witnessed in our battle this morning.

That same speed seemed to surprise Mark as well, and Snivy slammed into Charmander before the fire lizard even had a chance to move.

I called for a vine-whip, and Snivy began to beat Charmander with thin green vines extending from its back.

"Yikes your Snivy is fast" commented Mark. "Charmander, chase it away with ember!" he called. Charmander had rolled into a ball on the ground flailing to avoid the stinging vines. He now flipped over and shot a small ball of super effective embers at Snivy. The ember was done in haste and went a little wide. Even so, without me needing to call out to him, Snivy used his extended vines to propel himself into the air and avoid the fire attack. He was clearly a very bright Pokemon. As I saw Snivy sail through the air I had a crazy idea.

Snivy landed and Charmander came at him with a scratch attack. My green snake Pokémon managed to avoid it once more. "Close in on him with scratch!" called Mark. It was clear that both he and Charmander were growing frustrated that they hadn't yet landed a single attack. Snivy was just that fast.

Charmander tried to close the gap between the two Pokémon to prevent Snivy from dodging his next attack. He managed to back Snivy close to a tree, and that was the perfect setting to try to execute my plan.

Thinking my Pokémon was backed into a corner Mark triumphantly called for another ember.

"Quick Snivy, vine whip on the ground into a tackle!" I wasn't sure if the command was too complicated, since this was the first battle Snivy and I had fought together. As it turns out, I didn't need to worry. He understood perfectly.

As Charmander let out its embers, Snivy threw itself into the air using vine-whip. He flipped right over the ball of fire before acrobatically turning his dive into a tackle that hit the surprised Charmander square in the chest, knocking it out.

Mark and I were dumbfounded.

"I…I can't believe that worked" I said, totally shocked, as Mark and I called our Pokémon back into their balls.

"That was absolutely insane" he said slowly. "I was sure I had you because of the type advantage. There should have been no way for you to win. But man, buddy, your Snivy is fast! Charmander couldn't even land a hit. You reduced my type advantage to nothing!" he ran a hand through his hair as if to clear it from the crazy image of my little Pokémon sailing through the air into a tackle. "Completely nuts. And you called it!" Mark said again, as if he just remembered. "It wasn't some lucky move! You told it to do that insane thing and it got what you meant and executed it! That must be one rare Pokémon you caught. What do you know about it anyway?" he said, finally coming up for a breath. Mark tended to rant when he got nervous or excited.

"I honestly have no idea. I only think it's called Snivy since that is the sound it makes. It may also have more attacks. I only know tackle and vine-whip since that is what it used against Pidgy when I caught it."

"How _did_ you manage to catch it?" asked Mark. "Was Pidgy able to hit it?"

"Not at first, no. Snivy was able to avoid the first few attacks, but I hit it with a quick attack. And then Pidgy managed to surprise it." Something else occurred to me. "Mark, it could also be that you didn't manage to hit Snivy because your Charmander was a little less accurate. His first ember was shot pretty wide. He also wasn't able to anticipate and correct after missing. That is something out other Pokémon seem to do once they gain more experience."

Mark was just stirring the pot to see if lunch was ready. "You know, you may be right, Charmander could be really young. But am I supposed to find out if that is true or not? There is no way I can read up about every type of Pokémon out there on the off chance that I will catch one… that is an insane amount of information. I don't even know if it is possible to learn all of this stuff…"

We were silent for a couple of minutes, contemplating these questions. Meanwhile Mark declared lunch ready and gave me bowl with a nice steamy meat broth.

As we ate the answer came to me. " I know! We'll ask my uncle. We are hardly the first aspiring trainers, and there must be some answers at least! Uncle dale will definitely know."

Mark nodded enthusiastically. "That's a great idea. Actually now that you mention it we really should have been utilizing your uncle and his experience more with all our planning. We should run it all by him and ask him if he would train with us. Give us a few tips. We have a gym leader sitting under our noses and we have been totally ignoring this opportunity!" Mark was right. We had been idiots. We spent the last three weeks trying to figure it all out on our own when we could have asked for tips and pointers.

We resolved to ask him as soon as we got back to town. The plan was to spend the rest of the afternoon in the wild, sleep back at camp and walk back to town the next day. Judging by the time it took us to get here, if we left early morning we would be back home just before dark.

We didn't encounter any new Pokémon the rest of the day. Truth be told I don't think either of us was really trying too hard. We walked around. We made it all the way down to the creek I had gotten too that morning, but we were joking around loudly and kind of just happy with the progress we had made on this short pre-journey foray.

To me what I had learned at our battle today was most important: type advantage didn't assure you victory. Sure, it was important, but maybe not even as important as strategy and correct communication. I really looked forward to continue training with Snivy. I felt like the two of us had a lot of potential to improve even more.

We made camp that night not so far from the creek. I fell asleep in my sleeping bag listening to the soothing sound of water flowing over rocks.


End file.
